Australian Market Extends Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is extending its early gains in mid-market trading on Monday, adding to the gains in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving well above the 8,650.00 level, with gains across most other sectors led by mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 79.50 points or 0.92 percent to 8,700.90, after touching a high of 8,709.00 and a low of 8,599.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 83.00 points or 0.93 percent to 9,001.30. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 1 percent, Rio Tinto is adding more than 1 percent, Fortescue is advancing almost 2 percent and Mineral Resources is surging almost 4 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy and Santos are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Woodside Energy and Origin Energy are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is advancing almost 2 percent, Zip is gaining more than 1 percent, Xero is edging up 0.2 percent and Appen is surging almost 7 percent, while WiseTech Global is losing almost 4 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Northern Star Resources and Genesis Minerals are adding almost 3 percent each, while Resolute Mining is up 2.5 percent, Evolution Mining is gaining more than 2 percent and Newmont is advancing almost 4 percent.

Among the big four banks, Westpac and National Australia Bank edging down 0.1 to 0.3 percent each, while ANZ Banking is gaining almost 1 percent and Commonwealth Bank is edging up 0.4 percent.

In other news, shares in NextDC are jumping more than 7 percent after the data centre operator announced an increase in contracted utilization, reaching 412MW following recent customer contract wins, significantly exceeding earlier expectations.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.661 on Monday.